Sceptical Rating for the article reviewed: Four Plungers –

The following article was originally published on the Child Health Safety blog. We appreciate their kind permission to reprint this important information here.

Have you ever wondered why supposedly no one knows where “all the autism” is coming from? Here we set out a blatant example of a misdirection of research results taking the medical professions and the public down a blind alley.

In the case of the paper “Advancing Paternal Age and Autism” Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63:1026-1032 the authors had and published data which was and remains fundamental to proving the increase in autistic conditions since the expansion in the vaccine programmes in the mid to late 1980s is real and substantial.

For the best part of two decades health officials around the world have insisted untruthfully that the increases in autistic conditions since the 1980s are attributable to “better diagnosis” and “greater awareness”. They also used to insist that autistic conditions are caused by genetics [have “internal” causes] until it started to be established that the huge increases could not be accounted for on such a basis – because if it was all genetic then the numbers should have been the same all along over centuries.

What the data from “Advancing Paternal Age and Autism” showed and shows was that prior to the introduction of vaccines to Israel the figure for cases of childhood [ie typical or Kanner] autism was 8.4 in 10,0000 children and there were even fewer cases of Asperger’s syndrome so the increase in cases of Aspergers is even more dramatic and serious than even that of childhood autism cases.

The data the authors obtained when compared to current data shows that not only has the incidence and prevalence of childhood autism increased dramatically but also that the incidence and prevalence of Asperger’s syndrome has been even more dramatic since the mid 1980s and dwarfs the increase in autism. The data was obtained using current diagnostic criteria so was and is comparable to current data for current cases. So what the data and results of this paper really show is that the allegation the increase in autistic conditions is “better diagnosis” and “greater awareness” is false. You can read more about this here:

The authors not only ignored what seems a very obvious finding from their data and results but also misdirected the medical profession and the public away from that finding and down an obscure and blind alley.

Medicine in general is the best example of misdirection of research efforts where commercial and conflicting interests – ie pure greed for making money – seem to ensure that research in many areas is directed down all the blindest of blind alleys and the obvious avenues are either ignored or the research is suppressed or prevented. The research funds are spent on research guaranteed not to find causes or cures, but at the very best only for drug treatments to be paid for over a lifetime of non cure treatments with drug adverse effects of the drugs aplenty.

There is a great deal of money to be made that way over many decades. “Genetic” research is a great general example where billions of US tax dollars have been spent and there is little to show for it – and especially where autistic conditions are concerned.

Good old medieval serfdom and feudalism never died they have just been refined and redefined. The majority, the 21st century “serfs”, pay their feudal “tithe” to their new feudal Lords in different ways. In the 21st Century this means paying with their health and sometimes their lives – not much change there then.

Instead of focussing on an important result the authors of “Advancing Paternal Age and Autism” made a very different and obscure claim. The claim was that fathers aged over 40 had a higher probability of having autistic children. The authors made that the focus of their paper. The claim was made on the basis of scant data. The paper was a statistical study [ie this was tobacco science not clinical investigations] and this claim was based on a very small sample with a poor confidence interval. Fathers aged over 40 involved in the sample accounted for 3 per cent of the children concerned and the confidence in the figures was very wide and thus of extremely low reliability.

Misdirection from studies like this one must obviously be holding back the uncovering of fundamental information regarding autistic conditions and supports and enables government health officials to continue to make over far too many years the kinds of false claims they have been making about the causes of autistic conditions.

The authors and the institutions for which they work need to explain themselves. Israeli parents who performed their military service deserve better than this – which looks like it is mostly by Americans exploiting their connections with Israel.

NOTE: We are NOT Australian Skeptics (with a ‘k’). Our name is spelt with a ‘c’. Not only is our spelling different, but so too are our objectives, methods, activities, and focus. Everything, really. The other lot appear to be largely concerned with attacking things they don’t understand; bullying minorities; and further entrenching the status quo.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, click here to visit their website.

Otherwise, stick around. Our website is dedicated to introducing doubt, stimulating curiosity, furthering enquiry, and fostering good sense. You will see references in this blog to the other lot, but rest assured that there is no connection whatsoever between us!